What you need to know about the new direct marketing guidance note
Nadine Mather and Chloë Loubser
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New name, rich heritage
Newly listed Exxaro, one of the largest South African-based mining resources companies formed from the merger of Kumba Resources and Eyesizwe Coal, has undergone a re-branding process aimed at embodying a new SA company that adds value to its people, the economy and SA as a whole. “Powering Possibility” is the brand promise it makes to its stakeholders.
Exxaro executive general manager for corporate affairs and investor relations, Trevor Arran, says that “Powering Possibility” captures the nature of the business and its unique benefit.
“As a resource company, we are the starting point of the value chain and our products affect all industries in one way or another – hence we power industry and business, and create possibility through delivering innovative and sustainable products to benefit us and generations to come,” he says.
Creative process
Arran describes the re-branding process as a bold and creative one. Strategic branding company, Harwood Kirsten Leigh McCoy (HKLM), was hired to determine the strategic intent, develop the brand platform, generate the name and develop a new design that is African but globally relevant.
According to HKLM MD Sean McCoy, generating a name that would be new and unusual, would have meaning, longevity, be easy to pronounce, and be available in both the local and global environment was an exacting but exhilarating process.
“Working against strict guidelines and criteria in conjunction with the client, we systematically filtered and eliminated more than 1200 names until ‘Exxaro’ was shortlisted,” he says.
Coat of arms
Providing further grounding in South African heritage, the new name is also linked to our country’s credo on the South African coat of arms, !ke e:/xarra//ke, written in the Khoisan language of the /Xam people, meaning “diverse people unite” or “people who are different joining together”. The word is also derived from the Latin word “exaro”, which means to dig.
In determining the colour perspective of the new identity, a palette has been created outside the norm in terms of the traditionally conservative mining industry, ultimately developing a space that Exxaro could own.
The bright shade of green has been selected to reflect roots, growth and a new way of thinking that is positive and instantly recognisable. Without requiring additional iconography, the use of the double XX in Exxaro allows for an invaluable symbolism in terms of the new organisation’s people and its philosophy of being “people powered”.
“The new identity speaks to everything we, as a company, aspire to and all employees have welcomed it wholeheartedly,” says Arran.
